


Hidden Dogs and Awful Sandwiches

by BotchedExperiment



Category: Mystery Skulls Animated
Genre: Caretaking, Gen, Hurt/Comfort, Sick Arthur, Sickfic
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-10-20
Updated: 2016-10-20
Packaged: 2018-08-23 15:58:13
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,517
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8333638
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/BotchedExperiment/pseuds/BotchedExperiment
Summary: Lewis and Vivi were the best friends Arthur had ever had. Sure they were . . . Over-enthusiastic at times, but they cared about him.





	

You learn a different way of living when you live in a van with two other people (and a dog). It's small and cramped and one can learn a whole lot about his friends when he's with them, all day, every single day. They seem to learn a lot about him, as well, and that's great and all until he's trying to hide something.

 

Lewis and Vivi were the best friends Arthur had ever had. Sure they were . . . Over-enthusiastic at times, but they cared about him. He cared about them, too, but if they ask him one more time-

 

"You sure you're okay? You're still acting pretty weird." Vivi was looking him over with a raised eyebrow.

 

"Vivi."

 

She held her hands up in surrender but looked none too apologetic.

 

"She's right though," Lewis commented as he jumped out the back of the van, bottles of water in-hand for the three of them, and a dish for Mystery. After handing his friends each a bottle, he cracked open his own and poured some water in the dish. The dog happily lapped at the water while Lewis leaned against the van next to his friends.

 

As the driver, Lewis declared a break. Now they were parked on the side of a slightly ominous gravel road, taking in the sun and stretching their legs. That was the first sign to Arthur that they were not-so-stealthily trying to look out for him. Lewis was usually the one of the group who liked to keep driving until they reached their destination.

 

Arthur stared at the water bottle in his hand, sighing. "I haven't been sleeping well, that's all."

 

"You never sleep well," Vivi countered. "It's different this time. You look, like, /super/ tired." She drew out the word 'super' as an exaggeration. Arthur just rolled his eyes.

 

"I'm fine."

 

No one would ever have possibly been able to guess that Arthur was not, in fact, fine. Ha. The poor guy found himself feeling more and more dizzy and out of it as the day went on. He could only guess that it was going to get worse.

 

A couple hours into their drive, the van stopped.

 

"Wha's goin' on?" Arthur rubbed at his eyes, coming to the realization he had fallen asleep on a pile of blankets in the back.

 

"Gotta fill up," Lewis said. "Afterwards, we might as well go inside and grab some dinner, huh?"

 

Vivi immediately agreed to the idea, but Arthur was a bit more hesitant. Sleeping was the only thing that sounded good to Arthur. His appetite had left him a long time ago.

 

\-----

 

They were scrunched at one of the few tables in the convenience store. Arthur watched Lewis and Vivi inhale their food, while he sat and stared at the awful-looking gas station sandwich. He couldn’t eat it. He took one bite, and that was enough for him.

 

"Hey buddy, you gonna eat that?"

 

"Go for it."

 

He shoved the thing toward Lewis and then let his head fall on the table. Arthur could have sworn Vivi was patting his head like he was a dog.

 

"You good?" She asked.

 

"Yeah, but it's really cold in he-"  he broke out into a painful coughing fit. The few other people in the place stopped to stare at him and he wanted to run out the door. Arthur winced, clearing his throat and growling under his breath. As soon as he looked up he found his friends giving him concerned looks that made him want to run out that much more. "Guys."

 

"Oh, sorry," Vivi said. "Were we staring? Psh, it's fine. It's just that you kinda sound like you're dying."

 

Lewis heard her exaggeration and choked on his food, trying not to laugh. "Maybe we should go."

 

Vivi nodded. "Maybe we should." They both slid out of the booth but Arthur stayed in his, working up the courage to move. He tried willing his limbs to move, but they were being stubborn.

 

"Uhh, Art?" Lewis raised an eyebrow.

 

"Right yeah, I'm standing up."

 

"Alrighty," Lewis sounded unsure.

 

And Arthur did stand up . . . For a few seconds. And then some spots got in the way of his vision and was he falling. All of a sudden, he was upright again, Lewis gripping his arm.

 

"Viv, he's got a fever." And then he was being dragged out the door.

 

Lewis climbed in the van and started it up, turning the heat on when he saw Arthur shivering.

 

"Want the front?" Vivi offered. "It'll be warmer up there."

 

Arthur thought about it for a second before nodding begrudgingly.

 

It was a weird change. It was usually his two friends and Mystery in front, with him always stuck in back. He didn’t mind it, not usually. If he was honest with himself, it would be weird if there were only two of them, everyone fitting up front.

 

Arthur slid into the front next to Lewis. He was pretty sure he could hear Vivi giving Mystery the remains of his sandwich.

 

The ride was long. Arthur was freezing. Even Lewis, Vivi and Mystery looked a little chilly. He checked to make sure that the heat was really on - yup, definitely on. Their rolling hunk of metal just wasn’t heating up like it should.

 

He coughed into his fist and leaned his head against the window.

 

"Jeez, that cough doesn’t sound good," Lewis commented, keeping his eyes on the road. "We should've gotten some kind of medicine while we were there."

 

Before Arthur could say anything back, Vivi called from the back, "Lew, turn up the heat?"

 

Lewis looked disapprovingly at the dial. "It's up as high as it can go, sorry."

 

"You're kidding!"

 

"Nope."

 

Now Arthur just felt guilty for sticking her in back. "You can have the front if you want, Viv," he said. "I was thinking about lying down anyway."

 

"No way, mister. You're sick and the heat never reaches back here."

 

Arthur sighed, Lewis just laughed at his attempts. And then he saw a frown grow on Lewis' face.

 

"Actually I think the heat might've stopped working . . ."

 

"Uh oh," Vivi mumbled.

 

\-----

 

"A hotel?!" Arthur exclaimed in disbelief.

 

Lewis nodded. "I know, I know, we don’t usually do that unless it's an emergency but you've got a wicked fever going on there and cold air can't be good for your lungs and-"

 

"And you had to scrape up cash just to pay for gas today!" Arthur broke into a series of coughs, which wasn't really helping his argument. "How the hell are we going to pay for a hotel room?"

 

"Well . . ."

 

Arthur heard Vivi rummaging around in the bag until his heard the crumples of paper. She handed the envelope to Lewis, and Arthur's eyes widened. Their emergency money.

 

"That's a bad idea."

 

"We'll probably have enough to pay for one night and then to get the heating fixed."

 

The word probably scraped Arthur's ears on the way in.

 

"Anyway, when we finally get where we're going, we'll be paid."

 

And then he found himself being dragged into a cheap (and warm) hotel. Lewis talked to the woman at the counter, who's attention was mostly on a TV that was out of sight, while Vivi kept an eye on Mystery who may or may not have been hidden in an open duffel bag. 'No Dogs Allowed' was really just a suggestion to the three of them.

 

Lewis turned to them, patting Arthur on the shoulder. "We're upstairs. C'mon, bud."

 

Though he was still completely against the entire thing, a bed was sounding so good. Arthur couldn’t remember the last time he'd felt this tired, and he had experienced a lot of sleepless nights.

 

The room had one bed, but it was bigger than the back of the van (somewhere that they had all slept in together countless times). But there was an issue neither Lewis or Vivi had addressed. He was probably contagious as hell and they were about to sleep in one bed together.

 

He grabbed the extra, sketchy-looking blanket from the closet and started to set up on the floor.

 

"Nuh-uh," Vivi decided. "You're in with us. I mean, look, you're still shivering. Even Mystery is waiting for you to get in so he can sleep on you."

 

"I'm sick," the first time he had actually said it. "And I'm gross and I'll be coughing all night."

 

"Bed!" Lewis called from the bathroom with a mouthful of toothpaste. "Heck," Arthur heard him spit into the sink. "If you really wanna sleep alone, Viv and I could-"

 

"No, no," Arthur sighed.

 

He crawled into the bed and was joined by Vivi and then Lewis. At first he was tense, suppressing the tickle in his throat and trying not to so much as breath. He was tense and nervous, and the others could tell. "I'm sorry. I just . . . I never asked you two to do all this."

 

"Art, we're always here for you," Lewis told him. Arthur relaxed between them, hearing the soft tone of his friend's voice.

 

"Even if you don't want us to be," Vivi added.

 

 

 

 


End file.
